Nino Rota

Patterned after the hit 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express, director John Guillermin's 1978 motion picture Death on the Nile, with a screenplay by British playwright Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth), was also based on an Agatha Christie mystery novel of the 1930s and featured an all-star cast. And it was also filmed in a lavish retro style that brought the running time to two hours and 20 minutes. To accompany this big-scale production, the filmmakers hired veteran composer Nino Rota, best known for his collaborations with Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2), but also a big record seller with Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968) and a recent Oscar winner for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II (1974). In the twilight of his career (he died seven months after the film premiered), Rota brought his familiar romantic, lyrical style to his cues for Death on the Nile, which were interspersed with period source music such as Harry Warren's "I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Me)" and Jacob Gade's "Jalousie." But he could also be playful, notably in the circus-like "Camels and Donkeys," making him an ideal accompanist for a movie that was occasionally winking at itself in its attempt to re-create a long dormant style. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide